1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a feeding apparatus capable of separating and transmitting sheet-like mediums piece by piece.
2. The Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional feeding apparatus is used to separate and transmit sheet-like mediums 90. The feeding apparatus includes a pickup mechanism 91 arranged to pick and drive the medium 90 and a separating mechanism 92 arranged downstream to the pickup mechanism 91 for separating and transmitting the mediums 90 piece by piece. When more than one medium 90 are fed to the downstream region of the separating mechanism 92 (so-called multiple feed), it will cause an error of processing the medium 90. So, many technical improvements of the feeding apparatuses are trying to avoid the occurrence of multiple feed.
Such as the conventional feeding apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the pickup mechanism 91 includes a pickup roller 911 and a pressing structure 912. The pickup roller 911 is contacted with the medium 90 and rotatable to drive the medium 90 to move along a conveying path 93. The pressing structure 912 controls the normal force between the medium 90 and the pickup roller 911. The separating mechanism 92 includes a separating roller 921 and a brake roller 922 arranged at the both sides of the conveying path 93 relatively. If, for example, two mediums 90 enter between the separating roller 921 and the brake roller 922, the medium 90 that contacts with the separating roller 921 will keep moving downstream along the conveying path 93, but the medium 90 that contacts with the brake roller 922 will be stopped by the brake roller 922 and stays in the separating mechanism 92. With this, the mediums 90 can be transmitted along the conveying path 93 piece by piece.
In order to avoid more mediums 90 being further fed into the separating mechanism 92 while there is one medium 90 in the separating mechanism 92 already, a sensor 94 is arranged inside the separating mechanism 92 and connected with a control unit 95. When the sensor 94 detects there are more than one medium 90 in the separating mechanism 92, the control unit 95 will control the pressing structure 912 to lift the pickup roller 911 away from the surface of the medium 90. With this, other mediums 90 will not be fed into the separating mechanism 92 while there is one medium 90 in the separating mechanism 92 already.
However, the overall structure of this conventional feeding apparatus is too complex. It includes not only the sensor 94 and the control unit 95, but also an actuator or a power transmitting structure (not shown) arranged to drive the pressing structure 912. As a result, its production costs are quite high.
In view of these disadvantages above, the conventional feeding apparatus needs to be improved.